Ned's heavy metal gets it together

The assorted pieces of bullet-pocked armour, sorted to suit each outlaw, at the Old Melbourne Gaol. From left, Ned Kelly's, Dan Kelly's and Steve Hart's.
Picture: SIMON SCHLUTER

It has been immortalised in art, film, literature and the popular imagination. But until yesterday, we have not seen the original version of Ned Kelly's armour.

In the 122 years since the Kelly gang's last stand at Glenrowan, the bits and pieces of their steel armour - helmets, breastplates, backplates, shoulder pieces, aprons - have changed hands countless times.

Along the way, the parts got mixed up. Kelly's armour had been displayed with a backplate that was actually the breastplate of one of his gang members, either Steve Hart or Dan Kelly.");document.write("

advertisement

");
}
}
// -->

For many years, says historian Ian Jones, no one cared. There was a "culture of institutional apathy" about Kelly relics. "They were just relics of a criminal outbreak and they weren't taken terribly seriously," he says.

But as Kelly's stature as a historical figure grew, so did interest in correctly piecing together the gang's armour. In 1998, barrister and amateur historian Ken Oldis completed a report that sourced Kelly's helmet and breastplate to the State Library, his backplate to the Victoria Police Museum and a shoulder piece to Scienceworks museum.

Yesterday, for the first time, the State Library and the Victoria Police, owners of the armour of Ned, his brother Dan and Hart, met for a historic swap meet. The exchange means the library now has the most complete suit of Ned's armour, comprising his breastplate, backplate, helmet and one shoulder piece. For Mr Jones, the re-assemblage was "a 40-year dream come true". "I just thought it would never happen," he says.

Mr Jones first spotted the wrong combination of armour in 1966 when he went to an exhibition of the Antique and Historical Firearms Collectors' Guild. Four suits of armour were laid out side by side - those of Ned, Dan, Steve and gang member Joe Byrne, whose armour is in a private collection.

"It was there that I realised the extent that they had been mixed up," he says. Mr Jones, Mr Oldis and historian Keith McMenomy pieced together the armour by studying sketches, police photographs and documents. Of particular help was a sketch by Thomas Carrington, drawn early in the morning of Kelly's capture. Oldis compared dents and bullet marks on Kelly's helmet and breastplate with those in the sketch.

Ned's armour will go on display in a Kelly exhibition at the library next year. The Museum of Victoria, which has the second shoulder plate, will contribute it to the exhibition.

As for Dan's and Steve's suits, police will use forensic science to try to detect any other mix-ups.